Assessing the DDos threat

How dangerous is DDoS?

In BT’s cyber-security survey of more than 600 large organisations, DDoS emerges as a major area of concern, almost every respondent IT decision maker (96 per cent globally) reported an increase in customer complaints when their network systems went down after a DDoS attack.

More than half of IT decision makers worldwide think DDoS attacks are becoming increasingly effective at subverting IT security measures – but 80 per cent are not convinced their organisation allocates sufficient resource to counteract these attacks.

Who’s ready to fight DDoS?

Responses vary wildly sector to sector

BT’s survey of 640 major organisations around the world found a huge discrepancy in readiness to fight DDoS attacks – despite their potential impact on customer service.

Most business and professional services (70 per cent), pharmaceutical (76 per cent) and financial services organisations (69 per cent) have a response plan in place should a DDoS attack occur.

But at the other end of the spectrum, less than half of retailers (46 per cent), public healthcare (45 per cent) and other public sector organisations (45 per cent) have response plans in place.